Permissive, Authoritarian, and Authoritative Instructors: Applying the Concept of Parenting Styles to the College Classroom

Two studies examined whether the ways in which college teachers interact with their students in the classroom can be categorized in the same ways that developmental psychologists have typically categorized parents' interactions with their children. In Study 1 (n = 191) and Study 2 (n = 588), university students described the instructor for a class in which they were currently enrolled using a modified version of the 30-item Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buff, 1991). Across both studies, students who expected better grades rated instructors as more authoritative and less authoritarian. Students who described instructors as higher on the authoritarian style reported low levels of interest in the course and rated the instructor unfavorably. The authoritative teaching style was associated with setting high academic standards, greater student interest, and more favorable student evaluations of instructors.